Ask the Exercise Scientist

[Lemonada8]

Well, that is another reason i am prefering a DO school, i dont have a 3.7, i have like a 3.5 ( at myu current school and 3.1 cum wit all schools) i play football, so im not even close to the hours of volunteering and shadowing, but my dad is a DO, and im goin to follow someone else for some hours but i can use fball as a extracaricular activitie... and they are starting to look for more balanced applicants ( i know a doc on the board of Mizzous med school) i am taking the MCAT this spring and ill prolly do good, i usually do really well on standardized tests when i study... they have actually saved my grade for my ochem.... and i have god interviewing skjills so I just need to do good on th test....

What cycle are you applying for? You realise the only reason to apply DO is if your grades are borderline for being accepted into lower tier MD schools. The typical matriculant is a 3.7/31 MCAT. Typical DO matriculant is a 3.5/28 MCAT...Of course that means 50% of matriculants are below those averages, but I would say unless you are sitting on a 3.7+ and 31+ MCAT with at least 200 hours of volunteering and 100 hours of shadowing, and some other quality EC's, that you should apply to 20 of the lowest tiered MD schools, avoiding schools that take less than 1.5 OOS, and then at least 10-15 of the osteopathic schools that you have a shot at. The MSAR is a valuable tool for looking up this info and finding out where you might be competitive. Of course numbers are only half the battle, if you have the interviewing skills of a rock, you can have perfect numbers and get in nowhere...

[thegodfather]

Well, that is another reason i am prefering a DO school, i dont have a 3.7, i have like a 3.5 ( at myu current school and 3.1 cum wit all schools) i play football, so im not even close to the hours of volunteering and shadowing, but my dad is a DO, and im goin to follow someone else for some hours but i can use fball as a extracaricular activitie... and they are starting to look for more balanced applicants ( i know a doc on the board of Mizzous med school) i am taking the MCAT this spring and ill prolly do good, i usually do really well on standardized tests when i study... they have actually saved my grade for my ochem.... and i have god interviewing skjills so I just need to do good on th test....

How are you scoring on practice tests? You want to be scoring consistently 1-2 points above your goal on the practice tests before you take the real thing. I'd also do a variation of Kaplan, Princeton, & ExamKrackers...

[BrokenBricks]

I had a rough night before the exam and scored 2-3 points lower than my practice tests. fyi.